Item 5 - PH on Laurel Hill Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

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2. The pubfic need to have immediately developable land available for commercial development as the residential areas of East Laurel Hill continue to develop. The applicant demonstrated that the existing commercial areas are undesirable for immediate use due to issues of topography and lack of infrastructure. Those vacant commercial properties adjacent to Glenwood Drive have no access to that road, are positioned at a lower elevation, are currently not served by utilities and may be developed only in conjunction with or subsequent to the construction of Brackenfern Road. The issue that has changed since the 1982 amendments to The Laurel Hill Plan is that access to these lands is now significantly farther from the interchange due to recently obtained ODOT access controls along Brackenfern Drive. These sites appear to have become less desirable due to the additional distance from the interchange to the access points leading to the properties. This represents a public need for accessible and available commercial areas. 3. The pubfic need to have commercial sites with unique characteristics suited for tourist-oriented commercial development available to the Eugene area. The public, in this case, is comprised of the tourists who would seek more options for travel services such as a motel or for commercial goods The applicant's testimony states: "With the reduction of available units from the recent tear down of the Clarion Motel, the lack of available commercial property at the Gateway Interchange as well as the Coburg Interchange, the ever-increasing traffic on I-5 and other factors have led to unmet demand for motel and tourist services that are freeway oriented in the Eugene/Springfield area". The testimony further states that potential motel developers, whom have contacted the applicant regarding the subject property, do not find the existing commercially zoned properties as desirable because of access and other location-related issues. Given this evidence, the City concurs that the public need for property for tourist uses is unmet with the existing designation of the subject property. With the above evidence, the applicant has made sufficient findings to demonstrate a public need for revising the East Laurel Hill Refinement Plan map to designate the subject property as commercial. No other policies in the Laurel Hill Refinement Plan are relevant to the subject site. Based on the above findings, the proposal complies with this criterion. EC 9. 8424(2) The refinement plan amendment addresses one or more of the following: (a) An error in the publication of the Refinement Plan. (b) New inventory material which relates to a statewide planning goal. (c) New or amended community policies. (d) New or amended provisions in a federal law or regulation, state statute, state regulations, statewide planning goal, or state agency land use plan. (e) A change of circumstances in a substantial manner that was not anticipated at the time the Refinement Plan was adopted. The applicant states that there have been two significant changes since the 1982 amendment to The Laurel Hill Plan, as follows: 1. The 1999 Metro Plan amendments enacted in essence, a new poficy of not locating residential development beneath high-voltage power lines. The referenced amended findings were added to the Metro Plan text in the Residential Land Supply and Demand section, page III-A-2, in December of 1999, and stated as follows: Findings #5. Undeveloped residential land is considered unbuildable and removed from the supply if it is within 230 Kl? powerline easements..." Exhibit A 8